1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a guide arrangement for a roof element for a motor vehicle roof.
2. Description of Related Art
One such generic guide arrangement is known from published German Patent Application DE 195 14 585 A1, a T-shaped guide web being formed on the bottom of a mounting element attached to the roof cover and the two guide surfaces being formed by a first cam and an abutment cam which is offset with respect to the first cam in the lengthwise direction. The guide claw can be made in one piece out of plastic and is movably guided in the lengthwise direction of the roof along a roof-mounted guide rail.
German Patent DE 100 24 442 C1, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,968,514 and 3,005,226 disclose guiding the cover of an openable motor vehicle roof along a roof-mounted guide rail by means of guide blocks which are attached to the cover, each guide block surrounding a horizontally projecting bridge in a U-shape, the guide block being provided with a flexible lining or plastic element in the engagement area.
In a slotted guide in which a link pin is movably guided in a link slot, tolerance equalization can be achieved by the link pin and the link slot being designed with an overlap, the slot width widening relative to the pin diameter. This is possible because the slot is relatively long and therefore the material which surrounds the slot acts as a spring. In a bridge guide (for example, a T-guide) this type of tolerance equalization cannot be achieved, because the bridge cannot be used as an elastic element. As a result, the problem arises that either the bridge guide or the guide claw rattle, because the width of the bridge, is less than the spacing of the retaining claws. Additionally, the problem arises that the two parts stick or can move only with a great application of force, which results in the wear of the contact surfaces being very large such that, after a certain number of actuations, rattling of the parts will occur.